THE Winton branch of HSBC is among 82 which are to close this year, the bank has announced.

The branch at 396 Wimborne Road will shut in August.

It will be the second loss of a bank in Winton within a year. Barclays closed its Winton branch last October.

The 82 HSBC sites chosen for the axe will start shutting their doors permanently from April 23, starting with Edinburgh’s Princes Street branch, with approximately three closing each week until the end of September.

Barclays branches in Boscombe and Winton to close

HSBC said the Covid-19 pandemic had seen a greater shift to online banking although insisted the closures were not entirely related to the lockdowns and restrictions introduced.

Staff in branches facing closure were expected to be redeployed to other branches and sites within 15 miles of their homes, the bank said.

HSBC said the closures were part of plans to become a market-leading digital bank and an overhaul of how remaining branches will operate.

Of the 82 sites closing, 81 are within a mile of a Post Office, two thirds are within five miles of another HSBC branch and nine in 10 are within 10 miles, the bank added.

Bosses said the changes would see four distinct branch formats that “best suit customer needs, based on detailed analysis of customer behaviour”.

These include full service branches, cash service branches for customers who need greater access to cash, counterless branches with self-services only and pop up branches.

Jackie Uhi, HSBC UK’s head of network, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the need for the changes that we are making.

“It hasn’t pushed us in a different direction but reinforces the things that we were focusing on before and has crystallised our thinking.

“This is a strategic direction that we need to take to have a branch network fit for the future.

“Making sure we have a sustainable branch network is essential to us, and decisions to close branches are not taken lightly.

“By ensuring we have the most suitable branch format in each specific local market that we serve, we will ensure that we are in good shape to meet the challenges ahead.”

She added that stripping out any impact of the pandemic, the number of customers using branches had fallen by a third in the last five years.

Nine in 10 of all customers contact the bank over the phone, internet or smartphone and staff talk with more than 100,000 customers a week on social media.